The present invention relates in general to a conveyor system and in particular to an automatic sorting conveyor system which can be arranged in any desired loop configuration and which is capable of automatically and arbitrarily sorting a variety of articles of various sizes being transported.
In a hithertofore known automatic conveyor system, a plurality of single-sheet trays of a size corresponding to that of the articles to be transported has been employed to form an endless conveyor with each of trays being supported tiltably on a bogie having four wheels and locked normally in an untiltable position. The bogies are connected to an endless chain so as to form the endless loop conveyor. Such conventional conveyor system has, however, many drawbacks. For example, in the running of the bogies having four wheels but provided with no differential gear mechanism, there may be slippage between the inside and outside wheels due to a difference in speed therebetween when the bogies are running at a curved portion of the conveyor track. For this reason, restriction is imposed to the curvature of the curved portion of the track in dependence on the size of the bogies as employed and the speed at which they are to run. Additionally, because the conveyor chain used for the coupling of the bogies in the hitherto known conveyor are not of the universal type, the bogie can not run on the track having different vertical levels in the extension thereof, since the coupling chain is not able to bend in the vertical direction. Further, complex and expensive structures are required because of the necessity of the tilting and the locking mechanisms.